Voice of Experience: Carole Berndt, Head of Global Treasury Solutions, EMEA, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

CaroleBerndtBy Cleo Thompson (London), founder of The Gender Blog

At an early stage in her career, Carole Berndt, winner of the 2011 Women in Banking and Finance’s Award for Achievement, stood on a mountain in Hong Kong and was asked to quote on the risk element of turning the side of the mountain into an airport. She duly quoted, the site was purchased and developed and is now Hong Kong’s Chep Lak Kok international airport – a story which reflects Berndt’s geographically diverse career, first in insurance and now in banking.

“I was born in the UK and in 1970 my family moved to Australia; I grew up in Sydney and went to university there. My first job was as a book keeper with an insurance company – subsequently purchased by Allianz – and they invested in me. I did accounting, then computer science, then an MBA in international business. I led the very early efforts in the e-commerce space in the 1990s for the company’s Asia region and spent considerable time in Singapore and Indonesia.

“Around the late 1990s, I became known in my company as the “grandmother of the internet” – that’s when I knew I’d become part of the furniture and life had become too easy. I was offered and took a role with Citi in Hong Kong running the project office for their e-business unit, which then become known as Global Transaction Services.”

Berndt stayed for eight years, leading the client delivery services team before moving to New York following her promotion to global head of client delivery. She was then approached by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, so with a great opportunity on offer, she relocated to London in 2010 into her current role of head of global treasury solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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Voice of Experience: Jennifer Christie, Chief Diversity Officer and VP, Global Executive, American Express

Jennifer ChristieBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Right now is a very exciting time for the Diversity and Inclusion team at American Express,” said Jennifer Christie, Chief Diversity Officer and VP, Global Executive at American Express.

Christie is leading the company’s global diversity team on putting together its next three-year strategy. She said, “We’re taking the diversity and inclusion work that was done here, which was really transformational, and taking it to the next level.”

“This company and culture allows you to dream big – and we are,” she added.

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Voice of Experience: Petra Van Hoeken, Chief Risk Officer – EMEA, RBS Global Banking & Markets

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Make sure you enter your career excited, that you have a desire to do the job and that you want it,” advised Petra Van Hoeken, Chief Risk Officer – EMEA, RBS Global Banking & Markets.

Van Hoeken, whose career has spanned decades and has worked in different roles around the world, has stayed true to this mantra herself. Part of her success, she explained, has to do with her openness to new opportunities.

She continued, “It’s amazing what kinds of opportunities there are. I see so many youngsters coming into their careers and they want to plan everything. My advice is to be open minded and learn.”

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Intrepid Woman: Amanda Steinberg, Founder and CEO, DailyWorth

AmandaSteinbergBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Our mission is to transform women’s relationship to self worth and money – to empower women to increase their net worth,” said Amanda Steinberg, Founder and CEO of DailyWorth. “There is a lot of media attention around increasing savings and salary potential, but increasing net worth – you don’t hear a lot about it.”

“We want to really understand what the particular issues are around money, and provide engaging and interesting financial information,” she continued. DailyWorth is a web community for women to learn about personal finance in a more engaging, empowering way.

“It’s about freedom of choices in life,” Steinberg explained. “The endgame for many women – even successful ones – is this ideal of the ‘full scholarship.’ So many women still strive toward this husband/provider construct. It’s like some sort of princess rescue fantasy.”

She continued, “But for far too many women, it doesn’t work out that way – and it’s an antiquated idea that lives in our subconscious.”

“The next level of the women’s movement is knowing that you have a choice. You don’t necessarily have to be the breadwinner or the CEO – but you can choose to be.”

“It’s about liberation. Or it is for me, anyway,” Steinberg added.

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Voice of Experience: Joanna Cound, Managing Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, BlackRock

joannacoundBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Joanna Cound, Managing Director of Government affairs and Public Policy at BlackRock, a critical career juncture for women is the move from director level to managing director.

“I made MD in 1994, before there were a lot of [women’s leadership] programs in place. It’s amazing how robust the program that BlackRock has set up is,” she said. BlackRock Women’s Initiative Network (“WIN”) was launched in April 2010 and currently has seven regional chapters with over 1,800 members. She advised that women begin to build a supportive network early, to help navigate and seek mentorship throughout their career.

“Networks are hugely important to your career,” she said. “Women know this but often neglect networking for more immediate priorities. Seeking guidance from senior executives, both from mentors and more informally from colleagues, is also critical. They say ‘feedback is the food of kings’ and it’s true. Ask for feedback and act on it.”

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Voice of Experience: Monica McConville, Partner, Practice Leader, English Law Equity Capital Markets, Shearman & Sterling

Monica_McConvilleBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“It’s important for women, when first starting out, to remember that you have a right to a seat at the table, even if you’re the only woman in the room,” said Monica McConville, a London-based partner and leader of Shearman & Sterling’s English law equity capital markets practice.”

She added, “Opportunities will come your way. Always try to embrace them.”

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Voice of Experience: Natalie Horton, Head of Synthetic Equity Trading for North America, Deutsche Bank

nataliehortonBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Natalie Horton, Head of Synthetic Equity Trading for North America at Deutsche Bank, has spent seventeen years learning the business. And her biggest piece of advice comes down to building relationships.

“Network – I could say it a thousand times. It’s so important. Above you, around you, and below you,” she said. “Get to know everyone. That’s how you learn. If I have any sort of problem, maybe I don’t have the answer, but I know who does,” she explained.

Horton has built her career by taking risks and making connection with others – and, she said – she wants more women to feel comfortable doing the same.

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Voice of Experience: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Managing Director, Treasurer, Americas, RBS Global Banking & Markets

jenniferfitzgibbonBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Think about how you are going to distinguish yourself in this industry,” advised Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Managing Director and Treasurer, Americas at RBS‘s Global Banking and Markets division. “What are the things I can do to stand out and establish myself as a go-to person?”

This is something Fitzgibbon has worked hard to do throughout her career. She recalled attending an off-site ski trip in Austria early in her career. She didn’t know how to ski but managed to connect with a colleague whom she had not previously met). He convinced her to ski down the black diamond slope with him.

“Later, I found out he was actually our new global head, and subsequently had recommended me for a large role because he thought I could handle anything. That’s the importance of putting yourself out there and taking a risk. Just try to do it without so many bruises!”

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Voice of Experience: Kim Stafford, Executive Vice President, PIMCO

Stafford_KimBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“One of the challenges women face in financial services is the overall number of senior women we have as an industry. There are many amazing women at PIMCO, and in the industry broadly, but there are fewer of them than men,” explained Kim Stafford, Executive Vice President at PIMCO.

She continued, “But I’m actually quite heartened that this is changing. We’re actually seeing many more female leaders in the industry and that’s exciting.”

After eleven years at the firm, Stafford recently joined PIMCO’s executive office, working on firm-wide strategic, financial and operational initiatives. Also an enthusiastic supporter of women in the industry, Stafford is a member of the steering committee for the firm’s Women’s Leadership Network.

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Intrepid Woman: Learning about Effective Leadership by Rappelling Waterfalls

laurabergerContributed by Laura Berger, Executive Advisor and Founder of The Berdéo Group. She is also Director of Corporate Programs at Tiara—Exceptional Women’s Coaching.

While living in Costa Rica, I learned to rappel waterfalls from great heights. I overcame what I thought was an insurmountable challenge – my fear of heights.

When my husband and I went on our first rappelling trip, I was instructed on the techniques for gradually rappelling without having to plunge into the water from the precipice 110 ft up. Rappelling reduces the acceleration of gravity, thereby avoiding the crushing clash of two surfaces—one being part or all of the adventurer’s body and the other being the rocky pool below. Fortunately when done properly and with control, rappelling allows you to enjoy your surroundings during the gradual descent and exercises the brain by learning new techniques to be applied to the next rappelling experience.

Certainly, significant preparation is required. Our guides had rappel anchors with backups already in the trees at the top of the waterfall. Even so, they invested significant time and energy in retesting these anchors before our rappel. They also tested our knots, checked that the ropes were properly looped through our rappel devices and made sure that our ropes would not come into contact with any sharp objects during our descent for fear of their severing.

My rappel could only begin when I committed myself to angle my body 90 degrees so that I could walk on the wall face horizontally. This was extremely counterintuitive, but trying walk vertically as I was used to resulted in my body slamming into the wall face-first, very painfully.

The descent was controlled by grabbing the rope below my waste, not above. Since my body was hanging from the rope above, my natural inclination was to grab the rope hard above my waist with both hands to avoid a fall. Of course, this would only scour my hands raw, before I fell anyway. Truly, there is no strong grabbing required. Rather, lifting the hand outward away from the waist speeds up the descent and bringing that hand downward below the waist slows it.

Rappelling waterfalls is exhilarating on so many levels. First, realizing that slanting my back flat horizontal to the ground 110 feet below actually was safer was a thrilling paradigm. Then, walking a wall of orchids, mosses, insects, and other wonders gave the feeling of exploring uncharted territory. The brake hand is a fantastically unreasonable anomaly as well. That is, to completely stop and dunk my head in the waterfall or examine a plant by lowering one hand was complete defiance of natural laws.

Finally, arriving at the bottom of the rock face and seeing the wall above was organically awe-inspiring in that an otherwise unconscionable route was taken in a methodical, controlled manner. The unconventionality of the experience was a rush, even though there was never any true danger given the safeties in place.

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